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S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
The Bible says that God is sovereign. This means that He is ultimately in control of everything, not just some things. He is in control of the weather (Psalm 148:8), life and death (Psalm 104:29-30...
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Andy Mangus
My, as per usual, 'simple' answer on this topic is not in anyway a contradiction to all previous or yet to come answers. My take on this is that God is sovereign, omnipotent, omnipresent and in control, but not in the way our 'human minds' can comprehend. What do I mean by this? Well, what I mean is that God sees, knows and has foreknowledge of every single event, thought, deed, intention, both good or bad....simply, EVERYTHING in totality! He is "the Alpha and Omega"! He is "The Great....I AM." So "Why does He allow evil men, like Hitler or Saddam or ISIS terrorist to come into control or power?" My reply would be that 'God is in control...!' And, "we can't comprehend His ways nor understand His ways, for only He is God". He tells us that He loves us more than we can understand. He tells us to "lean not upon our own understanding, but trust in the Lord in all our ways and He will direct(guide) our pathways". God has a purpose and reason(s) for allowing evil people to do bad things, just like He allowed Satan to 'really' test Job in the Old Testament. (Job 1:1-11) For many, many things that happens to any or all of God's children, many are bad and we immediately don't understand how and why! But, again He tells us to simply "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul, and He will direct your paths". It's all about faith, trust and obedience unto Him as our creator and eternal savior! (Proverbs 3) With this 'mental picture' of our understanding to some degree of the sheer magnitude of His power, ability to know and see in advance, but still 'give man his free will in every single thought and/or action, we by faith are to put our trust in God and, as always...HE is still in control!' Is this possible for us to fully comprehend?...I think not! Point being is this: God knows all, sees all, allows what meets His tolerances and most importantly, He has our existence and well being at the very center of His heart, His love and adoration for His most precious creation, Man! We are "to live by faith, not by sight"! "God so loved the world, that He sent His one and only begotten Son to die on that cross at Calvary, to die for and take on all our sins that we may have a home in Heaven with Him for eternity". "Praise God that we have a Savior! And, His name is Jesus Christ". --Andy--
Billy P Eldred
I only add this answer as a personal perspective. It is not from the Bible but does incorporate my understanding of the Bible. Which would bring you greater pleasure, building yourself an android that looks exactly like a human child that was programmed to tell you he loves you and even gives you hugs OR a little child who unprompted crawls up in your lap and looks up and says "I love you daddy!" The difference is that the Android child has no choice. He must do as he is programmed. The human child could just as easily walk up and kick you in the shins. Without that alternative possibility, the hug and "I love you" just wouldn't mean as much. God, being God, could have created this world anyway He wanted (And did). Without allowing evil as an alternative, what would our choosing Him be worth to Him. To me not much. But, He designed everything including sending Jesus to die so that we would choose Him! That is free will and without freedom to choose evil, there is no free will. This to me does not mean that God creates evil. Only allows it as a part of free will BECAUSE HE LOVES US AND WANTS US TO CHOOSE HIM! It is man that chooses evil and God has built in a system for justice and judgement that deals with that choice and encourages us to repent of it. Therefore He is not really even allowing it, just not handling it as we think He should. (We wouldn't be happy if He handled it our way either) We also have to remember that to God a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day. So even a lifetime of evil and consequences of it is but a couple hours to God. That is pretty swift justice.
AMOS Ismail
My opinion is that... In as much we continue to expect the earth to be like heaven where God lives, we will continue to question Him (God) in many cases and circumstances even after He has promised us the best we desired in due time to come. This is not a surprise to God anyways because He is used to that from the beginning (Genesis 3:12), the man putting blame on God. Another case is when we are expecting the wilderness (journey) to be like the promised land (destination), we cannot but complain. Why does God allow evil men like Hitler and Saddam to come into power? There are 1001 answers to the simple question. One of the answers is to justify the existence of the devil and to remind us that where He (God) lives such cannot be permitted. And to let us know that we are on earth not yet fully in heaven though our names (saints) are registered together with our spaces in heaven. This is another way to comprehend the wisdom and love of God at the end of all things. Though we do see now as shadows; but at the end, we will know all things as we ought to know. Now we can see how the prince of the air rules on earth and we need to "enjoy/endure" it while it lasts since there won't be repeat of it in eternity to come. "... God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, FOR THE FORMER THINGS HAVE PASSED AWAY.” Revelation 21:3,4. Let's bear with them while they last. The whole creation including the saints are subjected under HOPES not yet seen. But differ from one another. Romans 8:18-25. Lastly, the manifestation of the devilish hearts in all ways shows that the existence of God cannot be questioned. The darker the night is the more the glory of the day light when it arrives. Jesus came to remind us all what we have forgotten about God and to prepare us for a better place with God; not to take the evil from the earth since the source (Satan) still exists. But if all could come to Jesus and listen to Him, then evil could be reduced but not totally eradicated since the end has not yet come. Amen. Peace be with all saints in Christ Jesus.
Meluleki Maphosa
This in my view is a question that a lot of us ask, one way or the other especially when we are faced with problems. We expect God to manipulate issues on earth to our advantage. We expect that since God is Sovereign, Almighty, Omniscient and “loving” towards us His children, then He should intervene directly and stop bad things from happening. The question presupposes that God should stop evil men from assuming power and here we should explain why. Perhaps we should ask: Does God have the authority (not power) to intervene this way? My view is that the Bible is replete with thousands of examples on why God doesn’t and indeed shouldn’t intervene and stop evil men. Starting with Gen 1:26-28 God creates Man in His “image” and gives/ surrenders dominion to him. God being spirit has no “image” or picture. The image mentioned here is freedom of choice. But freedom of choice comes with responsibility for actions taken. Man is responsible for the consequences of his decisions or expression of choice. As the story pans out, we see Eve eating the fruit and the first family suffer the consequences of their choices. Why didn’t God intervene and stop Eve from even going to the tree. My view is that God had done all He could apart from bending her will, to stop her from the sin. When the devil approached Eve at the tree in Gen 3:1, he suggested that God wasn’t entirely truthful and trusting of the them hence He didn’t tell them the whole truth and let them into His confidence. He suggested that God had misled them and kept certain secrets of running the universe to Himself for fear of Man discovering those secrets. I suggest here that of course the devil was lying, if God would have intervened it would have played into satan’s game. The same plays out in the story of Job in Job 1:1-11. If God could intervene and stop evil from falling on His most trusted servant, He surely would have. But He didn’t. Fast forward to Jesus in the garden of Getsemane. Suffering under the weight of the sins of the world, Jesus prayed for relief or intervention but God didn’t instead He comforts Him and supports Him in the suffering. What lessons do we draw here? My view is that God has unequivocally given the freedom of choice to the human race. But we must carry the consequences of our decisions/ choices. Hitler and Saddam didn’t put themselves in power. Power was given to them by someone or some people. Humans have put in place means and ways for power to be assumed and God cannot intervene and stop those choices. He lets it play out and we suffer the consequences. Of course it breaks His heart, but part of the reason for the Bible is that we must learn from numerous stories and examples that God doesn’t takeaway our right to choice Isaiah 55:8-9. To do so would be for God to change and become as manipulative as the devil.
Len Thies
The Bible is clear -- God, while being sovereign, is not in control of this world. He is not responsible for the evil in this world. God setup Adam as having dominion over the world, however, when he yielded to the sweet-talking Satan in the Garden, Adam's dominion transferred to Satan, who, the Bible calls the "prince of this world" and the "god of this world". As a human being, I am in charged of my decisions in the same way that all the angels were before Lucifer/Satan decided he would use his influence and power to place himself as an equal with God. As an equal, Satan could live according to his own laws rather than those of God. God, being just as well as merciful, must not overcome the wills of human beings, therefore, His main work in this world is due to the prayers of His children, those individuals who have repented before God for their sinful condition and accepted God's Redeemer, Jesus the Christ, as their personal Savior. Human beings are responsible for their actions. God is not to blame. God is good, merciful, and loves each of us as human beings. He cannot show favoritism. He is totally Just in His Judgments.
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